Can't believe I cooked for the chickens today

One of our freezers in the basement is full of quart sized bags of frozen vegetables or fruit..or whatever. My MIL's freezer was too full so it was brought over here and forgotten about....The latest date is 2002....freezer burnt or full of ice.

Today I took out four bags of spinach and 1 of broccoli put it a pot w/some water. Cooked until thawed & warm.

The chickens were impressed, ate the stuff and even drank the green water.

LOL! Good for you! I cooked for my girlies today too. They usually have some kitchen scraps for breakfast but there was nothing today and I had some old instant potatoes so I cooked them up and added a small can of off brand pumpkin. It was scary nasty looking but the girlies were just humming with happiness.

I cook for them every afternoon. I cook up oatmeal and cracked corn. They won't eat corn at all unless it is cooked! They also get wheat and BOSS sprouts every day before I leave for work. They are spoiled!!! Once it becomes part of my routine, it doesn't seem too bad and the eggs are delicious. Once the weather gets warmer (if that ever happens) I might change the routine.

I don't see anything wrong with "Cooking for the Chooks" . Their commercial feed is nearly all cooked and certainly, processed in a number of ways. If you are giving them something as a supplement to commercial feed, it seems to me that it could have the same standards.

I had quite a few pumpkins in October. After Halloween, there wasn't much more need for the Jack O'lanterns and the ones that were not used for decoration. With only a small flock, those 10 pound pumpkins couldn't be eaten very fast. So, I pealed, cut up and steamed them. They went into plastic bags and into the freezer. Thawed, they are very popular with the chooks . I think I'll be planting plenty of pumkins in the garden again this year.

Sometimes, I cook their scratch. There have been weeks this Winter when I felt that they benefited from having scratch but I didn't have any grit on hand. The ground was frozen and snow covered and feeding grain without something to grind it up didn't seem wise. So, I cooked it for about 20 minutes in a rice cooker. When I tossed some split peas or chick peas into this mix, I really felt like they were getting nearly as good a feed as a commercial formula. Probably kidding myself there but I think that this "mush" was something that helped get them thru some tuff weeks of cold and snow .

I cook for mine too. I do old eggs, old rice, etc plus spinach , lettuce or cabbage what ever is at hand. they loved left over noodles and old chinese noodles too. I add a little of their reg. food to it just so they will have something good for them in the mix. Jean